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by NemiMontoya



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Coming Out, First Kiss, Fluff, Friendship, Love Confessions, M/M, Minor Ben/Beverly, Romance, Short One Shot, The Losers Club, no one's dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 16:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NemiMontoya/pseuds/NemiMontoya
Summary: It's time for Richie to tell him.





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't able to see chapter to 2 right away when it opened, but finally got to see it yesterday, and I'm still not recovered. I've been wallowing in feels and 80's love songs all day. Anyway, I'm sure there's already hundreds of fics like this out there now already, but I had to get this out, so I hope you'll enjoy my contribution. Thanks for reading! 
> 
> (If you liked it, kudos and/or comments are greatly appreciated. Same goes for my older Reddie fics if you'd like to take a look.)

He finds Eddie sitting outside the hotel on a bench, eyes closed and face turned up towards the sun. His no doubt neatly packed bags are next to him. Richie takes a deep breath and makes himself approach, with an awful, heavy feeling in his guts and his legs. He wants to do this, _needs_ to do this, finally. But it’s still so hard.

Eddie starts when Richie sits down next to him.

”Whoa, sorry,” Richie says, laughing as Eddie yawns. ”Did I wake you from your enchanted slumber, princess?”

”Bite me,” Eddie replies, still yawning. ”I was just taking a moment to enjoy the peace and quiet.” He glances and Richie, smiling faintly. ”It just felt nice, out here. And I think that I actually feel… better. You know? Just better.”

”Yeah,” Richie nods. He knows. ”So… what are you going to do now?”

Eddie sighs, and it’s the sigh of a man who has a lot of uncomfortable shit that must be dealt with.

”First go home and explain to Myra that I want a divorce. Then I’m gonna take a fucking vacation. After that… I don’t know. I think I need a fresh start.”

Richie clenches his fists, swallowing against the lump in his throat.

”If you want I could come with you,” he croaks out, and Eddie looks up at him. ”For… support. As a friend, or maybe if… if you wanted, we…”

”What are you trying to say, Trashmouth? Get to the punchline.”

”I’m not joking, okay, I’m serious. Damn, I’m fucking this up.”

Another deep breath. He turns to Eddie.

”There’s something I want to tell you.”

”I’m not in the mood for any mom jokes,” Eddie says, rolling his eyes.

”I told you, I’m being serious. I swear.”

Eddie eyes him warily, crossing his arms over his chest.

”Okay…”

Richie lets his eyes close for a moment.

”_Count to three… then just tell him. One… two… three…_”

”Twenty-seven years ago, I realized for the first time that I had fallen in love with someone.”

He’s too nervous to look at Eddie directly, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees Eddie raise his eyebrows in surprise.

”I never said, or did anything about it,” Richie continues, ”not only because the person I’d fallen for was one of my closest friends, but because he was a boy.”

Eddie lets out a soft noise. Richie rubs his cold, clammy hands against his jeans, every instinct screaming at him to pretend it’s just another joke. But he ignores it and keeps talking, and even though his whole body seems to be trembling, his voice is surprisingly steady.

”I was so afraid of what that meant. How people would see me. How my parents would see me.”

He makes himself meet Eddie’s eyes.

”How you would see me. Because it was you.”

Eddie’s eyes are round and wide, and at those last words, his cheeks grow red. Richie distractedly thinks that it’s adorable.

”You... were in love… with me,” Eddie says slowly, as if trying to process it. Richie nods.

”I still am.”

And there it is. All of it’s out - _he’s_ out - to the person he’s wanted tell the most, and perhaps the person he was the most afraid to tell.

”Ever since I left Derry,” Richie continues, ”and my memories were fucking stolen from me, there’s been this… constant ache, in my chest. It was driving me crazy, because I never understood why, I didn’t… I couldn’t remember. But as soon as I saw you at the restaurant, it became quite clear to me. I thought ’Ah. That’s why.’”

Richie slides a finger under his glasses to wipe at his eye. Fuck. He’s actually tearing up.

”You’re serious,” Eddie whispers faintly.

Richie nods. He’s managed to smudge his glasses, so he pulls them off and uses his shirt to wipe them.

”Yeah. I’m done being afraid of my own heart. Fuck, that sounded cheesy. But it’s true. I don’t want to hate myself over the way I am anymore, I’m so fucking sick of it. And I wanted you to be the first one to know, whether you felt the same way or not. And… well. Now you know.”

”Yeah,” Eddie says, voice rough.

”Yeah.” Richie puts his glasses back on, and glances at Eddie. ”So, uh… thoughts on this?”

Eddie’s face is blank, and Richie looks away, fixing his eyes on a couple of birds splashing in a puddle of water in the parking lot, steeling himself for however Eddie will react to everything he just said.

Then he feels it. The feather light touch of fingers against his. He looks down at his hand, resting against his thigh. Eddie has covered it with his own.

And then Eddie laces their fingers together.

That awful, heaviness inside Richie fades away, and though he felt cold a moment ago now suddenly his whole body feels warm.

”You could have told me, back then,” Eddie says, and Richie meets his gaze. ”If you had… it would have meant everything. But then again, I could have said something, too. The truth is, I was the same. I felt the same.”

He smiles at Richie.

”I still do.”

Richie feels his mouth widen into a smile, wetness on his cheeks, and then hears himself say:

”Holy shit, really?!”

Eddie laughs, tears in his own eyes, and nods. Richie reaches out and pulls him into his arms. He buries his face in Eddies neck and thinks to himself that it feels overwhelmingly right. Eddie feels like _home_.

Eddie pulls back a little, and leans his forehead against Richie’s.

”So… if you still want to come with me for… support… I’d really appreciate the company.”

”Yeah?” Richie smiles. ”Count me in. Just to be clear, though, we’re boyfriends now, right?”

”Idiot. Of course we are.”

”Good. That’s what I thought.”

Richie cups his hand against Eddie’s undamaged cheek, brushing his thumb over the cheekbone. They lean in together, lips meet, and Richie Tozier finds himself kissing Eddie Kaspbrak for the first time. And ooohhh boy. Fireworks. Actual fireworks. Electricity dancing over his skin, tingles in his toes, and his whole body feels like it’s actually melting. Eddie's lips feel soft and gentle and perfect.

”_Yes. This is what it’s supposed to be like. All this time, this is what we should have had._”

This is it. Richie knows it. They’ve done their part. They’ve give more than their share. Now they can finally let go of the horror and the pain, and find something new together. Eddie is his home, and Richie is here to stay.

*

Beverly observes Richie and Eddie from a distance. She doesn’t approach. It’s obvious they’re talking about something that just concerns the two of them. She sighs. There has been so little time. So many years the Losers have been apart, and now when they’ve been reunited most of their time together has been spent battling an ancient evil clown, and now they have to leave again and try to rebuild their lives. Not enough time.

She is about to turn back inside to wait for Ben, when a movement makes her look back towards the two men on the bench, and she stops in her tracks.

Richie and Eddie are holding each other, sharing a kiss. It’s soft and tender. They look happy. They look beautiful.

”Oh, Bevvie…” Stan has appeared beside her, holding his suitcase. She shushes him, pointing to Richie and Eddie. A slow smile spreads over his face as he spots them.

”Finally. I was hoping they’d work this out before we all left.”

”You knew?” Beverly looks up at Stan.

”You didn’t?”

”I guess I was surprised. But… the more I think about it the more it makes sense.”

”I noticed it back when we were kids. But I didn’t want to interfere. I thought they’d handle it themselves. And now they have. And it only took twenty-seven years.”

Smiling, Beverly grabs her luggage.

”Come on, let’s go back inside. I don’t want to disturb them.”

They go back in to wait for the other Losers, and to give Eddie and Richie their moment of privacy.

”I’m really happy about this, Stan,” Beverly says, settling down in a chair. ”They deserve some happiness.”

”They sure do,” Stan nods. ”And so do you and Ben, Bevvie. You’re good together.”

”Everything feels so… hopeful,” Beverly says, a bashful smile on her face. ”Like we’ve been given a second chance. Do you feel like that, Stan?”

”Yes. I do,” he says, fingering his wedding ring. ”I want to go home to my wife and try for kids. All of a sudden it feels possible. It wasn’t before.”

Children… Beverly hasn’t seriously considered that before. Never with Tom, anyway. But now, with Ben… The idea is appealing. But it can wait. They’re only at the start of their new life together, and they’ll take it one step at a time. It will no doubt be an amazing journey.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs signal the arrival of the rest of the Losers. Beverly and Stan get up from their chairs and collect their things.

”Should we tell Richie and Eddie that we happened to see that?” Beverly asks Stan uncertainly.

”Better not. They’ll tell us when they want to. When they’re ready.”

Which turns out to be exactly two minutes later when the Losers all gather at the parking lot to say goodbye before they part ways, and Richie and Eddie greet them holding hands.

”So, we’re gonna head out,” Richie says, grinning but red eyed from crying. ”Eds and I are going the same way. He wants to hurry up with his divorce so we can bone without him feeling guilty.”

”Aaand he’s back,” Eddie says rolling his eyes and gently elbowing Richie in the ribs. ”Dammit, Trashmouth!”

”I may be a Trashmouth, but you love me anyway. You said it, no take-backs!” Richie smiles, lifting Eddie’s hand and pressing a kiss on the knuckles.

”I do, don’t I? Apparently I have extremely weird taste in men,” Eddie says with a fond smile.

The Losers all watch this exchange with wide, excited grins on their faces. Soon, Eddie and Richie find themselves enveloped in a group.

”This is amazing! I’m really happy for you both,” Mike tells them.

Richie looks around at the smiling faces of his friends and it hits home that he’s accepted. They see him, all of him. They know his secret, and they still love him. Maybe even more than they did before. He certainly loves them even more. These people are his _family_. And Eddie… Eddie is the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Shit, his eyes are tearing up again.

”Yeah, well…” he shrugs, voice rough. ”Oh, Bevvie and Ben, you do realize this means you’re no longer the prettiest couple in Derry history? Sorry, but this,” he gestures at his and Eddie’s faces, ”is just too much hotness even for you to compete with.”

”Yeah, sorry guys,” Eddie laughs, ”but I’m with my boyfriend on this one. We have you beat.”

Hearing Eddie use the word ’boyfriend’ makes Richie want to do a happy dance. He stares at Eddie like a smitten fool, only snapping out of it at the sound of Beverly’s amused giggle.

Eddie puts his arm around Richie’s waist. Richie puts his around Eddie’s shoulder.

”Thanks, guys,” Eddie says softly to their friends. ”Love you.”

”Yeah,” Richie says. ”Love you, Losers.”

They all say it back - how much they love them, and how happy they are for them. Richie’s heart feels so full it might actually burst.

”Well… I guess this is it. Let’s keep in touch this time, yeah?”

”Will we remember?” Eddie asks anxiously, turning to Mike. ”I feel like I will, but…”

”I think so,” Mike says. ”I can’t be sure, but…”

Richie smiles at Eddie.

”I’ll remember.”

He knows it. It’s different this time. They’ll remember, all of them. He leans down and kisses Eddie again, and cheers erupt from the Losers. As they pull apart, Eddie has the softest expression on his face, and _oh fuck_ there’s that tingling feeling again.

”Suppose we should get going, then,” Eddie says, brushing a strand of hair away from Richie’s forehead. ”Are you ready?”

He takes one last look at their friends, then Richie picks up his bags.

”Fuckin’ born ready.”


End file.
